Underwater Angel
by The Eccentric Gamer
Summary: While on vacation, Aelita and Jeremy go snorkeling together.


**Summer is officially over (unless you happen to live in the Southern Hemisphere; in that case, it's not too far away!), so I thought it would be fitting to write a summer-themed Jerlita one-shot to commemorate the end of the season. :) Enjoy!  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own **_**C****ode**** Lyoko**_** or any of its characters.****  
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Jeremy was good at swimming, but that didn't necessarily mean he enjoyed it.

While the many tourists sitting next to him endlessly chatted amongst themselves, Jeremy tapped away at the keys of his laptop, his eyes glued to the screen. Every once in a while, he paused to gather his thoughts.

During one such pause, however, Jeremy found himself distracted by the small waves that constantly slapped against the hull of the boat. With annoyed sigh, he mentally asked to himself, _Why did I agree to this?_

Before he knew it, the answer to that question was standing in front of him, peering at him from over his laptop. "Are you coming?" asked the angelic feminine voice he knew so well.

Jeremy looked up. Aelita stood before him, wearing her blue one-piece bathing suit. Over her forehead, partially obstructing her bright pink hair was a diving mask, and attached to the side of it was a pink, J-shaped snorkel.

"Oh, I'm not sure, Aelita…" Jeremy answered hesitantly.

Aelita was not deterred. She was determined to share this experience with Jeremy. Besides, she had successfully coaxed him to join her on other unique ventures many times before.

This would be no exception. Aelita bent over towards Jeremy so that they looked at each other face to face. "Please?" she asked, giving him a cheery smile.

Aelita saw Jeremy's cheeks begin to turn red as he hesitated momentarily. Then, regaining his composure, he smiled back at her and replied, "Okay, Aelita."

He folded up his laptop, stood up, and placed it where he had been sitting. Aelita motioned for him to follow her to the aft of the boat.

"Come on," she said. "You can get a mask over here."

Suddenly, Jeremy realized something. "What about my glasses?" he asked.

"Just leave them by your laptop," Aelita answered. "You can see fine without them, can't you?"

"I guess," said Jeremy. He removed his glasses and set them on top of his computer, then followed Aelita to the back of the boat. There, he looked for a mask. All of them featured a black frame, but Jeremy quickly settled on one that had a light blue snorkel attached to it.

Next, he and Aelita each got a pair of yellow flippers. They were like shoes, meaning they had to find the right size for their feet. For Jeremy, the most awkward part was putting them on—it was like trying to squeeze each foot through a tight rubber slipper. Nonetheless, he managed.

At last, it was time for Aelita and Jeremy to enter the water. Jeremy took off his blue T-shirt and put it next to the rest of his belongings, leaving him wearing just his navy blue swim trunks.

Aelita descended the boat's ladder first. At the last step, she simply stepped off and her body effortlessly slid into the water. Jeremy's descent was slower and more clumsy due to the flippers, but eventually he, too, entered the water, if not as smoothly as Aelita.

After acquainting himself with the water, Jeremy waded away from the boat and towards Aelita, who had similarly distanced herself from the ladder to give Jeremy room to enter.

"Are you ready?" Aelita asked him, lowering her mask over her face.

"I'm as ready as you are, Princess," Jeremy replied, giving her a smile of acknowledgment. He lowered his own mask, which fit snugly around his eyes and nose. Then, biting down on his snorkel, he dunked his head under the water's surface.

Jeremy was initially greeted with a plethora of colors. Without his glasses, though, it was hard to make much of it. He squinted, and was astonished to see a vast array of sea life inhabiting the large coral reef below. Growing on the reef was a variety of aquatic plants—_and animals_, Jeremy mentally added to himself, noticing conspicuously plantlike fauna such as sea anemones and sponges. As he watched, Jeremy could also make out schools of colorful fish navigating the reef like cars driving in a big city.

Jeremy looked up, and saw Aelita swimming ahead of him. He kicked at the water with his flippers to keep up with her. When Jeremy returned to Aelita's side, she looked at him and pointed down. Expectantly, Jeremy once again turned his sights to the reef below. He saw nothing out of the ordinary at first, and threw Aelita a questioning look. Much to his surprise, however, Aelita was no longer swimming at the surface, but had taken a near-vertical plunge towards the bottom.

From the surface, Jeremy watched Aelita's descent in awe. Her arms were at her sides, and each kick of her flippers brought her closer to the bottom. She leveled off and began swimming horizontally just a few feet over the reef. Aelita looked around as she swam, fascinated by the sights that this dazzling realm had to offer. She stopped suddenly when a small blue tang bravely swam close to her mask. The fish paused, looked Aelita in the eye for a brief moment, and then swam away in no hurry.

At this point, Aelita began to feel her lungs ache for fresh air. She arched her body upward and began to rise to the surface. As she went up, Aelita caught a glimpse of Jeremy from the edge of her mask. She rotated her body to face him, and then playfully stretched out her arms as if to say, "Look at me!" Then she gently thrust them downward and gracefully ascended to the surface like some kind of underwater angel.

Even though he had previously seen her practice in the hotel's pool, Jeremy admired Aelita's skill. When he first brought her back to the real world, she had no idea how to swim, leaving it up to him to teach her. Once she understood the basics, however, Aelita proved to be a natural; today, her ability to swim almost rivaled that of Jeremy.

Just before she broke the surface, Aelita tilted her head back and blew bubbles out of her snorkel to clear it of water. Upon surfacing, she spat out her snorkel and drew in a large gasp of precious air. Jeremy waded towards her, having similarly raised his head above the surface and removed his snorkel from his mouth. Aelita smiled widely at him as he swam up close to her.

"That was fun," she said to him.

"It sure looked like it was," he replied.

"Looked like it?" she asked him, surprised. "You don't know what you're missing!"

Jeremy opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Aelita grabbed his hand, which caught him off guard. "Come on, let me show you!" she said, putting her snorkel back into her mouth and drawing in a deep breath.

"Wait a minute—_Aelita!_" exclaimed Jeremy as Aelita dove for the reef again. He barely had enough time to inhale a sufficient amount of air before she pulled him under. His snorkel dangled freely from the side of his mask as he moved through the water.

Aelita did not have a tight grip on Jeremy's hand. If he wanted to, he could have easily pulled himself free and returned to the surface on his own. And yet—Jeremy felt a compulsion to keep holding her hand. So he allowed Aelita to continue leading him deeper. Besides, however long Aelita could hold her breath for, Jeremy was confident he could hold his longer.

Jeremy felt his ears pop from the pressure as he and Aelita got deeper. The descent wasn't a long one—Jeremy estimated the water to be only about four meters deep. He continued to hold Aelita's hand throughout the descent, and the pair remained hand-in-hand as they leveled off and swam over the coral reef together.

Reinserting his snorkel into his mouth—he was bothered by the feeling of it dangling loosely from the side of his mask—Jeremy found reason to appreciate the aquatic landscape before him, which looked even more impressive up close than it did from the surface.

Jeremy glanced over at Aelita, and saw her point in front of them. Jeremy looked ahead to see a large eagle ray swimming towards them. As it approached, Jeremy found that he was unable to take his eyes off it—the ray was huge. He later reckoned its wingspan was bigger than he was tall.

Its wings slowly flapping, the ray gradually loomed closer before Jeremy suddenly realized it was on a collision course with him and Aelita. Startled, he let go of her hand and moved out of the way as the ray passed between them, ducking to avoid its gigantic, wing-like fin. The ray continued swimming past Aelita and Jeremy as if they weren't there.

The shock of the near miss had caused Jeremy to lose some of the air that was built up in his lungs. Quickly he swam for the surface, spitting out his snorkel on the way up, and gasped for air at the end of his ascent.

"Aelita?" Jeremy called out, looking around. She was nowhere in sight. He worriedly took a deep breath and once again dove under the waves, only to find Aelita still pleasantly swimming amongst the colorful fish. Relieved, he swam down to meet her. Aelita, seeing his approach, removed her snorkel from her mouth and gave him a pleasant smile that said, "See? It's not so bad, is it?"

And it wasn't. Once again, Aelita had persuaded Jeremy to step outside his comfort zone—and once again, he was grateful for doing so.

Still smiling, Aelita swam towards him. A flurry of bubbles erupted from her mask as she lifted it up over her forehead. Jeremy quickly knew where this was going. He removed his snorkel as his angel swam into his awaiting embrace. Then she pushed up his mask and pressed her lips against his.

_I hope the fish don't mind what we're doing,_ thought Jeremy as he returned Aelita's kiss.

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**Thanks for reading this one-shot! Please leave a review, and favorite if you liked this story. :)  
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